Foam on Gunnison Bay, north arm of Great Salt Lake, Utah

After strong winds in the morning, the waves subsided leaving foam patterns on the north arm of the Great Salt Lake (Gunnison Bay). Promentory Point in background.

The north arm is at saturation with salt (ca. 30% salinity)and the dominant organisms in the water, Dunaliella rubens and bacteria-like Archaea have red, photo-protective pigments (See Aharon Oren 2009; Saline Lakes Around the World, http://www.cnr.usu.edu/quinney/htm/publications/nrei). The quantity of foam suggests high levels of dissolved organic carbon (DOC, DOM).

Gunnison Bay is poorly studied. On this trip we were attempting to take sediment cores for a paleolimnology study, but the rock-hard salt bottom kept our gravity corer from penetrating.